Would you turn to Matthew chapter
five, beginning in verse 33. And this
is what James was referring to in James chapter five, verse
12. Again, you have heard that it
hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear
thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not
at all, neither by heaven, for it's God's throne, nor by the
earth for it's his footstool, neither by Jerusalem for it is
the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy
head because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but
let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these
cometh of evil. I don't know if they're still
around much, but some years ago, something that was big in popular
religious circles was the promise keepers. You've heard of them,
the promise keepers. Men made promises about how they
would conduct themselves and they would make themselves accountable
to each other to make sure that they lived up to the promises
they made. And one of the sayings was real
men keep their promises. Now, that sounds good. Sounds good. The only problem
is keeping that promise. Promise keepers. Have you ever made a promise
to God? I have. Lord, if you'll forgive
me, I'll never do it again. I promise. Lord, if you'll put
that sin away and not hold me accountable for it, I'll never
commit that sin again. I promise. Well, the Lord said in Matthew
chapter five, verse 33, again, you've heard that have been said
by them of old time. Thou shalt not forswear thyself,
you shall not swear falsely, you won't make a promise and
not keep it, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. Ecclesiastes 5.2 says, when thou
vowest to vow to God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure
in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldst
not vow than thou shouldst vow a vow and not pay. Now what the Lord says to do
is swear not at all. Don't make a promise. Swear not at all. Let's read these verses again.
Again, you've heard that they've been said by them of old time.
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the
Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not
at all. Neither by heaven, for it's God's
throne. You have no right to swear by
heaven. Neither by the earth, for it's his footstool. What
if I said I swear by all the money you have in the bank, Bob?
I wouldn't have the right to, maybe you don't have much, I
know, but let's say, let's, let's say you did. And I, if I, if
I don't keep my promise, it'll cost him every dime he's got.
I don't have the right to do that. Do I? You can't swear by
heaven. You can't swear by the earth,
neither by Jerusalem for it's the city of the great King. Neither
shalt thou swear by thy head. I promise I'll do this. You can't
make one hair white or black. You're unable to make sure that
that promise comes to pass. Let your communication be yay,
yay, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these
cometh of evil. Now, is the Lord saying we should
never make any kind of vow like in a court of law when they say,
do you promise to tell the truth? Should we say no? I'm not gonna
make that promise. Well, I wouldn't listen to somebody that wouldn't
make that promise, would you? What about, we've had a lot of weddings
around here lately. And I say, do you promise? Well,
if somebody says, I'm not going to make that promise, well, I
would marry her then. You know, I mean, if they're not gonna
make a promise, it's not saying don't promise at all. It's not
saying don't make a vow at all. But notice he says, you shall
perform to the Lord your oaths. Look again, you've heard that
it's been said by them of old time, thou shalt not persuade
thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. What he is talking about is making
promises to the Lord. A religion based upon personal
resolve and personal promise. I promise I will do this. The Lord says, don't do that. Don't do that. Now the Pharisees
had figured out all kinds of loopholes in their oaths. Look over in Matthew chapter
23. Verse 16, the Lord says, Woe
unto you, you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by
the temple, it's nothing. You don't have to keep your promise
if all you did was swear by the temple. But whosoever shall swear
by the gold of the temple, he's a debtor. He has to keep his
promise. I think that's interesting. The
temple doesn't matter, but the gold, the money in the temple,
you better keep your promise. Look what he says in verse 17.
you fools and blind, for whether is greater the gold or the temple
that sanctifyeth the gold. And whosoever shall swear by
the altar." What's the altar for? For sacrifice. Well, it's
nothing. If all you did was swear by the
altar, you don't have to keep your promise. It's not binding.
But if you swear by the gift on the altar, Well, now it's
binding. Whosoever sweareth by the gift
that's upon it, he's guilty if he doesn't keep his promise.
He says, you fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift
or the altar that sanctifyeth the gift. Now there's two things
I see. The Pharisees were trying to
make loopholes. There are no loopholes. There
are no loopholes. And the Pharisees had made that
which was sanctified more important than that, than the one who sanctified. They made their gift more binding
than the altar that sanctifies the gift. And that's altogether
wrong. Now back to Matthew chapter five. You should not swear by your
head because you cannot make one hair white or black. You
can't make sure. If I say, I promise I'll do something tomorrow. Do
I have the ability to make sure that that comes to pass? I don't
even know what's gonna happen tomorrow. I might be dead tomorrow.
But let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay, for whatsoever
is more than these cometh of evil. Now, a religion that begins
with me, that begins with my promise to perform, my resolve
is no good. It's no good. It's rotten. It is not saving. It's false. Something that begins with me
is always false. Anything that I initiate will
be no good because it began with me. Lord, I promise. Did you keep that promise? Now God sees the heart. Did you
keep that promise? Lord, I promise. Be honest. You know, the fact
that we say I promise something means I usually lie, but I'm
telling the truth right now. That's what that means. I know I lie
all the time, but I'm telling the truth right now. How do I
know? How do I know? I'm going to turn over a new
leaf. I'm going to live differently. Will you? That's talk. Let me show you a passage of
scripture in Luke chapter nine. I think this will help us understand
Luke 9, verse 57. And it came to pass that as they
went in the way, Luke 9, verse 57, a certain man said unto him,
Lord, I will follow thee whethersoever thou goest. That sounds good,
doesn't it? Sounds good. But anything that
begins with an I will is going to go bad. And the Lord said
to him, not, well, maybe you need, I'm glad you said that.
Get in line, follow me. No. He said, Jesus said unto
him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the
son of man hath nowhere to lay his head. And he said, now notice
here, it begins with him. He said unto another, follow
me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Jesus saith unto him, you let the dead bury their dead, but
you go and preach the kingdom of God. This begins with the
Lord. And another, the third, another said, Lord, I will follow
thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home
at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand
to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
Now notice the two men who initiated something that began with this,
I will, they were no good. But where the Lord initiated
it, he said, you follow me. That's the only one who would
follow him. Now, James said, above all things. And that's how important this
is. Above all things. That's important, isn't it? Above
all things. Swear not at all. A religion that begins with your
promise, your personal resolve, is bound to go bad. The first
example I thought of was Peter. The Lord said, one of you are
going to betray me. And Peter said, though the rest of this
bunch will, I won't do it. Who was the one who denied the
Lord with cursing and swearing? It was the one who said, though
the rest of this bunch won't, will, I won't. Now the issue here is grace or
works. My promise or His promise. My will or His will. Now man's religion has God making
a promise for everybody. God loves you, Christ died for
you, God wants to save you, the Holy Spirit's calling you, but
it's up to you as to whether or not you'll be saved. You must
accept what He did on your behalf or you'll not be saved. That
is absolutely necessary. Salvation is a free gift, but
you must receive it. Salvation is ultimately dependent
upon you, what you do. God loves you, Christ died for
you. God wants to save you, but all those things may be true
and you might wind up in hell anyway if you don't accept what
he did and make what he did work for you. In man's religion, in
false religion, and I mean not saving religion, the deciding
factor is the I will of the sinner and not the I will of God. That leper that came to Christ,
according to man's religion, came into Christ's presence and
said, Lord, I will that you make me clean. Oh, can you come into
the Lord's presence and say, I will anything? No, he said,
Lord, if you will, if you will. You can make me clean. You don't
come into the Lord's presence saying, I will anything. There's
only one who could do that. The Lord Jesus Christ could say,
Father, I will that they whom you've given me be with me, that
where I am, there may be, they may be also, but nobody else
can. Only the Lord speaks that way. Now I've been talking about
man's religion, that which begins with man's will. That which begins
with man's flesh. But what about the true? What
about the true? Well, let me quote a scripture,
and then I wanna go to Romans 8. As a matter of fact, be turning to Romans
8. But David, the man after God's
own heart. David, the son of Jesse. David,
oh, what a special man David was. Nobody else had said he
was a man after God's own heart. He was the writer of the Psalms.
the sweet psalmist of Israel, he's dying, and what's he saying? Although my house be not so with
God, and his house was a mess, and it was his fault it was a
mess too. Because of what he did, the Lord said, the sword
shall never depart from your house. And he knew that. And
he said, although my house be not so with God, yet have he
made with me an everlasting covenant. He talked about God's promise
to him. Ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my
salvation. And it's all my desire. though he makes it not to grow."
Now, Romans 8. I want to know how much of this
is dependent upon some promise we keep. Look in verse 28. And
we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. For whom He did foreknow, not
what He foreknew, but whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified." Now, what does
anything you did have anything to do with this? What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, hastily not
with him freely give us all things. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. Now, what part of this is dependent
on any promise you make or say you'll do? What part? Let me
show you another passage of scripture in the Old Testament. Turn to
Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36. Beginning in verse 16. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Son of man, When the house of Israel
dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and
by their doings. Their way was before me as the
uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore, I poured my fury upon
them for the blood that they'd shed upon the land and for their
idols wherewith they had polluted it. And I scattered them among
the heathen and they were dispersed through the countries according
to their way and according to their doings, I judged them.
And when they entered unto the heathen, whether they went, they
profaned my holy name. He's talking about Israel. When
they said to them, these are the people of the Lord and are
gone forth out of his land. But I had pity. And here's what we did. It's
described in verse 16 through 20. Verse 21, But I had pity
for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned
among the heathen, whether they went. Therefore say unto the
house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God. I do not this for your
sake, O house of Israel, but for mine holy namesake, which
you profaned among the heathen, whether you went. And I will
sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen,
which you profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall
know that I'm the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be
sanctified in you before their eyes. And then from verse 24
down to the rest of the end of the chapter, he gives 19 I wills.
You can count them yourself. He says, I will take you from
among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and
I will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean
water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness
and from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart
of flesh and I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them.
Don't you like that? God says, I will, and you shall. Oh, I
love that. I will, and you shall. Verse
28, and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers,
and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also
save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will call for the corn,
and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. He goes on,
all these I wills. Now this is, my salvation, all of it, is according
to the I wills of God. ever been of it. And that is
what I'm hoping. And I love it being this way.
I don't want salvation to be dependent upon some promise I
make or something I will. I want my salvation to be dependent
upon the will of God Almighty. Now, let your yea be yea. Don't make
promises before God. Let your yay be yay and your
nay be nay. Be honest with one another. Be truthful. Don't pretend to
be what you're not. Be honest and be real. Don't
try to project some kind of image of piety. Be real. Let your yes
be yes and let your no be no. Be honest before God. Don't use
guile with him. He can see right through us.
Oh, he sees the heart. Be honest with God. But what I thought about is I
thought about this passage of Scripture where the Lord said,
let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay. I thought of 2 Corinthians
chapter 1. Would you turn with me there?
2 Corinthians chapter 1. I looked
at this passage of Scripture, I guess, for a month wanting
to know How do I deal with this? How do I preach this? Preaching
through the Sermon on the Mount, how do I preach with this passage
of Scripture? That's a hard one to preach on. And this is what
I believe the Lord brought to my mind to understand what is
being said. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Now he said don't swear at all.
Don't make any promises to God because you can't keep any promise
you make. Just swear not, above all things, James said, swear
not at all. Don't have a religion based upon
your personal resolve. But look in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 1. When I therefore was thus minded,
did I use likeness? Were the things that I purposed,
do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should
be yea, yea, and nay, nay? But as God is true, Our word
toward you was not yea and nay, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea, for all the
promises of God in him are yea. They're not yea, nay. They're
yea and him, amen. So be it unto the glory of God
by us. Now, Paul said our word was not
yea, nay. It was not yes and no to the
same thing. And if I would describe most
preaching that I hear, yea, nay. Yes and no to the same thing. Is salvation all of grace? Oh, yes. Salvation's all of grace. But no, if you don't do your
part, you won't be saved. That's yay and that's nay. Do the same thing. Is the blood
of Christ enough to wash away all sin? Oh, yes. Yes, the blood
of Christ is enough to wash away all sin. You don't need anything
else. But if you don't do your part and accept him, his blood
won't do you any good. He may have died for you, but
you'll end up in hell anyway. Yes, his blood's enough, but
no, you need to do your part. That's saying yes and no to the
same thing. Is the Bible our only foundation? Yes! And we have creeds and confessions
and documents to prove that's what we believe. And we can go
to all of our creeds. If you gotta go to that, you
don't really look to the Bible as your only foundation. Is it
true that faith alone is enough, just looking to Christ? You're
saved by simply looking to Christ? Oh yes, that's true. You're saved
by faith. But, if your life doesn't measure
up, no. You need works as evidence to
you that you're saved. You have no right to believe
you're saved if your life is not sufficiently holy. Yes, salvation
is by faith, but no, you better have a life that proves that
you better see a holiness fit to make you think you're saved.
Yes and no. Is love the only proper motive?
Yes, it is, but just in case it's not, we're going to hold
out threats of loss of reward or gain of reward in case love
and grace is not enough to motivate somebody. Yes and no to the same
thing. Now that's not the way to preach. Paul said in this Verse 18, but
as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay, yes
and no to the same thing. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea, for all the
promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen. So be it to
the glory of God by us. Is salvation really all of grace? Yes. From election to glorification
and everything in between, salvation is all of grace. Is the blood of Christ really
enough to make me clean and holy before God. Yes, nothing else is needed. Is faith alone really true? Yes. If Christ is all you have,
you have all you need. Is salvation dependent on my
works in any way? No. No. You know that's our most
powerful word in the English language. No. Is there anything we can do to
save ourselves? No. Turn with me to Numbers 21. I
want to spend our last few minutes in Numbers 21. Verse 4, And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom,
and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way. You ever been discouraged? And the people spake against
God and against Moses, saying, Wherefore have you brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread." Now, wait a minute. That very day, man had come down
from heaven. There was food. Water was still
coming from that rock. But they said, we're sick of
this light bread. It's not enough to sustain us. It's not enough to satisfy us.
We want something else. Verse 6, And the Lord sent fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit the people. And much
people of Israel died. Now, I want you to put yourself
in their place. Snakes. all over the place, biting
people, people dying. There wasn't anything they could
do about it. There wasn't anything they could do to stop it. Much
people died. Verse 7, Therefore the people
came to Moses and said, We've sinned, for we've spoken against
the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent. and set it upon a pole, and it
shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. Now is that true? All you had to do was look at
that brazen serpent. That was it. If you looked, I
don't care how sick you were, I don't care how many bites you
had, if you looked. Is that all? Yes. Yes. Now remember, I don't want to
give yay and nay. Yes. All you had to do was look. Now let's go on reading. And
Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it
came to pass that if any serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived. Now we know from the Lord that
this is given to picture the gospel. He said, As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. All you had to do was look. That's
looking to Christ. Now here's the question I want
you to think about. What about the folks that didn't look? Have
you ever wondered about that? I mean, here Moses holds the
serpent. It's the gospel. He holds it
up on a pole. Look, if you look, you'll live.
And there's people who died anyway, and they didn't look. Why didn't
they look? Let me tell you why they didn't
look. Because they were trying to get rid of the serpents. They
were trying to avoid the serpents. They were looking at their wounds,
trying to figure out ways to get healed. They were so consumed
with getting rid of the serpents and staying away from the serpents
and avoiding the serpents and kicking the serpents out. I'm
sure they had brooms and they were doing everything they could
to keep them out of their house. They were so in... getting rid of
the serpents that they didn't do the one thing needful. You try to get rid of your serpents.
You try to knock them out of the house. You try to keep from
getting bitten. You can do all that, but it ain't
going to do you any good. You're just going to get bit
and you're going to die. There's one thing to do. One
thing. Look to Christ right now. You look to him. Somebody says,
I can't see. It doesn't say to see. It says
to look. You look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the one thing. Is that it? That's yes. Not yay
and nay. Yes. You look to Christ and you'll
be healed. You look to his person as the
one to save you. He's the son of God. He's the
mighty God, mighty to save. You look to His righteousness
as the only righteousness you need to make you perfect before
God. You look to His precious blood
as the only sin payment you need. Just look. You look to Him in
His life, you look to Him in His death, you look to Him in
His resurrection. I love to think of Him He was
dead three days. All of a sudden, there he is
in the tomb. He opens his eyes. Why? God's justice has been satisfied.
He's justified. He saved everybody he died for.
You look to him in his resurrection as your justification before
God. You look to him right now seated at the right hand of the
Father as the reason the Father perseveres with you for Christ's
sake. All we're called on to do is
look. And you know what the hardest
thing in the world to do is? Nothing but look. And yet it's
the easiest thing. Let me tell you when it's the
easiest thing. When you got nothing else to
do, when you don't have any other options. And the only option
you have is to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look and live. Is that all? Yes. Is there nothing else? No. Our word toward you was not yay
and nay. No, all the promises of God in
him are yay, saving and amen. to the glory of God by us. Don't. Now, swearing, making promises. Well,
I expect if somebody's going to stand before a court of law,
I want them to promise to tell the truth, don't you? I do. And if
I'm marrying somebody and they sit there and say, well, I'm
not going to make that promise. Well, I'm saying, well, this, this thing's over. We're not
doing this. But, but in this thing of making
promises before God, some part of salvation, beginning with
you and your will and your resolve, I'm going to, I'm going to make
this better. Don't do it. Don't do it. You demonstrate
not demonstrate such ignorance of ourselves. We're so don't,
don't look to yourself for a thing. Remember what the Lord said without
me, you can do nothing. I just chew on that. But Paul
said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.
Oh, may we be enabled to look away from self, from everything,
and look to Christ only. May God give us grace to do so.
Let's pray together.